Higher education and economic development
At the macro (national) level, this project explores the relationship between economic policy and development, on the one hand, and higher education system development, on the other. At the meso/micro (institutional/project) levels, the project seeks to understand the ways in which selected universities in Africa are responding to calls for a stronger engagement with the socio-economic development of their country and surrounding regions.
Project activities include the following
- A review of the international literature on the relationship between higher education and economic development;
- Case studies of three successful systems – Finland, South Korea and North Carolina in the United States; and,
- Site visits to eight African countries, including one university in each country (University of Ghana, University of Mauritius, University of Botswana, Makerere University in Uganda, University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa, the Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique, and the University of Nairobi in Kenya).
Data collection in the eight African countries includes the following
- Policy statements (national and institutional levels)
- Semi-structured interviews:
- National level (selected ministries, commissions/councils for higher education)
- Institutional leadershipÂ
- Heads of flagship development projects
- Quantitative data:
- National development indicators
- The higher education system
- The institutions.
Project team
- Senior researchers: Dr Pundy Pillay (Consultant), Prof. Peter Maassen (University of Oslo), Dr Nico Cloete (CHET)
- Researchers: Dr Gerald Ouma (CHET / University of the Western Cape), Tracy Bailey (CHET), Romulo Pinheiro (University of Oslo)
- Research trainees: Patricio Langa (University of Cape Town), Biko Gwendo (University of the Western Cape)
- Institutional contacts and facilitators at each of the eight African universities
- International reviewers and contributors: Prof. David Dill and Dr James Sadler (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Dr Misug Jin (Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training), Prof.Timo Aarrevaara (University of Helsinki), Prof. Johan Muller (University of Cape Town)
Publications
Linking higher education and economic development:
Implications for Africa from three successful systems
By Pundy Pillay
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Finland, South Korea and the state of North Carolina in the US are three systems that have successfully harnessed higher education in their economic development initiatives. This publication draws together evidence on the three systems, synthesises the key findings, and distils the implications for African countries.
Cross-national higher education performance indicators:
ISI publication output figures for 16 selected African universities
by Nelius Boshoff
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Most African universities do not have any incentive to capture the details of publications produced by their university staff. Even in cases where records are captured, the lists normally include a mixture of publications in both scholarly and popular sources, making it difficult to separate peer reviewed publications from non-peer reviewed publications. The purpose of this paper is to set out the publication output figures for 17 African universities that are the foci in a CHET project on cross-national higher education performance indicators.
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University:
An engine of economic growth for South Africa and the Eastern Cape region?
by Rómulo Pinheiro, University of Oslo
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This paper considers the extent to which Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University meets the expected objectives for newly-created comprehensive universities in South Africa: (i) improved access to, and articulation between, different types of programmes; (ii) efficiency gains; (iii) research synergies; and (iv) enhanced responsiveness to regional (social and economic) needs.